1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing liquid discharge head for discharging liquid as a flying liquid droplet to deposit it on a recording medium thereby forming a record, a liquid discharge head produced by such method, a head cartridge and a liquid discharge recording apparatus including such liquid discharge head.
The present invention is applicable to an apparatus such as a printer for recording on a recording medium such as paper, yarn, fiber, fabrics, leather, metal, plastics, glass, timber, ceramics etc., a copying apparatus, a facsimile apparatus having communicating function, or a word processor having a printer unit, or an industrial recording apparatus combined in complex manner with various processing apparatus.
In the present invention, xe2x80x9crecordingxe2x80x9d means not only providing the recording medium with a meaningful image such as a character or graphics but also providing with a meaningless image such as a pattern.
2. Related Background Art
The ink jet recording apparatus, effecting recording by discharging recording liquid (ink) from the orifice of the liquid discharge head, is already known to be excellent in low noise and high speed recording.
Such ink jet recording apparatus has been proposed in various systems, some of which are already commercialized and some are still under development for commercialization.
With the recent progress in the recording technology, there is being required recording of a higher speed and a higher definition, and the size of the discharge opening (orifice diameter) is becoming smaller with an arrangement of the orifices of a higher density. For this reason, there is being commonly employed an orifice forming method of employing a resinous film such as of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene sulfide or polyetherketone as the orifice plate and forming the orifice by fine working by excimer laser ablation on such resinous film.
However, it is extremely difficult to adjoin the orifice plate having a small orifice, without a gap, to the corresponding liquid path to be communicated with the orifice.
Consequently, there is adopted a method, as shown in FIG. 33, of forming a projection 245 in the vicinity of an orifice 241 on an orifice plate 240 at the side thereof at a main body 246 of the head and fitting such projection 245 or a part thereof into a flow path or liquid path 261. This method can prevent the intrusion of the adhesive resin into the orifice 241 or the liquid path 261. The formation of the projection 245 on the orifice plate 240 is executed by working with an excimer laser as in the formation of the discharge opening 241.
As explained in the foregoing, with the recent process in the recording technology, there is being required recording with a higher speed and a higher precision, and the number of nozzles is increasing in order to increasing the printing speed.
Therefore, there has been encountered a drawback that the orifice or the projection is not formed in the predetermined position.
In consideration of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing the liquid discharge head, capable of easily forming the orifice or the projection at the predetermined position with a high production yield, even in an orifice plate with a large number of nozzles.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing the liquid discharge head by adjoining an orifice plate having an orifice to a head main body having a liquid path by forming a projection around the orifice of the orifice plate and inserting such projection into the liquid path of the head main body, the method being free from defects such as an error in the pitch of the orifices or a defective shape of the orifice or a failure in the entry of the projection into the liquid path.
The present inventors have found that, by forming plural orifices and plural projections in continuous manner in the course of continuous transportation of a resinous film, the positioning for each orifice plate can be dispensed with, and the orifices and the projections can be formed in the predetermined positions since the continuous film is subjected to a tension during transportation.
The present inventors have also found that, in continuous formation of the plural orifices and the plural projections on the resinous film, the performance of the recording head is affected by the relationship between the direction of arrangement of the plural orifices and the plural projections on the resinous film and the longitudinal direction of the film.
Also in case of winding the film into a roll after the formation of the orifices and the projections, such projections, orifices or an adjoining face, to be adjoined to the head main body, around the projection may be crushed or damaged by overlapping of the film in the wound state, and such drawbacks have to be prevented for producing the satisfactory head.
According to the present invention, such drawbacks can be prevented by a method for producing a liquid discharge head provided with:
a head main body including plural energy generating elements for generating energy for discharging liquid as a flying liquid droplet, and plural liquid paths in which the energy generating elements are respectively provided; and
an orifice plate provided with plural discharge ports respectively communicating with the liquid paths and plural independent projections formed around the discharge ports and respectively corresponding to the discharge ports so as to enter into the liquid paths and to engage therewith, and adjoined to the head main body, the method comprising:
a step of forming plural projections and the discharge ports while a continuous resinous film is transported;
a step of separating the film in continuous manner in a predetermined size including the portion where the discharge ports are formed, thereby preparing the orifice plate; and
a step of adjoining the orifice plate to the head main body.